Sterling Spring, VT
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2.3 ppb (monitoring period 2022-2024). The federal action level is 15 ppb today and drops to 10 ppb in Nov 2027; EPA's health goal is 0. Lead was measured in sampled homes but the 90th percentile is under both action levels. EPA's health goal for lead is zero, so test your own tap if your home was built before 1986 or anyone in it is pregnant or a young child.
Who runs the water here
Sterling Spring serves about 200 people through 71 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Windsor County, Vermont. EPA system ID: VT0020552; phone on file: 603-622-7000. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Lead results over time
That is up 1.2 ppb from 1.1 ppb in the period ending 2021. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Sterling Spring is 2.3 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 2.3 ppb |
| 2021 | 1.1 ppb |
| 2018 | 1.4 ppb |
Where this result ranks
Of the 372 Vermont systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.4 ppb; 7 are over 15 ppb right now and 65 have gone over at some point. Sterling Spring's 2.3 ppb sits at the 67th percentile in Vermont and the 76th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Windsor County
38 other systems share Windsor County; 16 of them have a higher latest lead result than Sterling Spring. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Springfield Water Dept | 9,800 | 1.6 ppb |
| Hartford Water Dept | 7,600 | 2.4 ppb |
| Chester Water Dept | 3,200 | 2.5 ppb |
| Ludlow Village Water Dept | 2,880 | 1.8 ppb |
| Town Of Woodstock Water Department | 2,473 | 3.5 ppb |
| Windsor Water Dept | 2,350 | 2.7 ppb |
| Quechee Central | 2,262 | 3.2 ppb |
| Bethel Water Dept | 1,929 | 2.5 ppb |
| Jackson Gore Okemo | 1,695 | 0 (not detected) |
| Royalton Fire District 1 | 1,500 | 6.5 ppb |
Next steps for Hartford, VT
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Hartford, VT may offer free or low-cost kits through the utility. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask Sterling Spring whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do.
These figures describe homes the utility sampled, not your tap. Only your service line record or a test of your own water answers the question for your house. Why sampled homes are the worst-case ones is in the guide to reading the number. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.